
Colorado National Monument is positioned in the north-east part of the Colorado Plateau, that big chunk of canyon country that Ed Abbey so eloquently wrote the praises of. It sits west of Grand Junction, Colorado and north-east of Moab, Utah, its dry country, bisected by some great gulch topography, vertical sandstone walls, hot in summer and cold in winter. Spring is pretty close to perfect, especially if you come from country not yet released from winters drab cold. We arrived in late afternoon with warm light on the rock walls, red, buff, salmon and all gradations between. A few electric blue Penstemons were blooming under the ridge of a rocky hogback, along with radiant carmine Paintbrush, next to a beautiful purple Milk Vetch.

This terrain cries out for the grand landscape shot, and it is all here, big canyons, big walls and remarkable formations full of color with those impossibly blue skies overhead. It is all of this but I think of it as closeup country, walk the trails and the substance of the land crowds in, detail is the landscape , it is full of “nichos” and alcoves, a hidden corner with a seep or spring, green as Ireland.

We were hopeful that it would be warm enough to bring the lizards out to sun and by midday we got lucky. With lots of small lizards running underfoot, probably Side-blotched Lizards, our search ( a lot of slow walking among the Ephedra, Prickly Pear, and boulders fallen from the vertical walls around us) turned up what we hoped to find. The Collared Lizard, not just one, which would have made me quite happy, but three, two males and one female. Now we usually move very carefully around whatever critter we are trying to photograph and we were quiet and slow-moving around these guys but I found that when setting up my tripod to get a few “record” shots, you know, a little more distance than you really want, the males would rush from whatever rock they were on to a position too close for the lens being used. Don’t you hate that?
![Collard Lizard [Crotaphytus collaris]](https://pronghornwildlifephotography.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/ralz-0246.jpg?w=840)